Freezing Vegetables - Freeze only fresh highquality vegetables picked when barely mature. For best results, freeze no more than 2 to 3 hours after picking. Wash in cold water, sort and cut into appropriate sizes. Blanch or scald. Pack in recommended container and freeze. Do not freeze lettuce, celery, carrot sticks, potatoes or fresh tomatoes. All will become limp or mushy. Tomatoes will collapse when thawed.
Freezing Cooked Food-Prepare cooked foods as you would for the table; shorten cooking time 10 to 15 minutes to allow for additional cooking during reheating. Omit seasonings and part of the liquid. Plan to add them at reheating time. Potatoes should also be added to soup and stew at heating time. Add crumb and cheese toppings at heating time. Cool as rapidly as possible and freeze at once. Liquid or semi-liquid dishes may be frozen in recommended containers with heud-space. Casseroles and other more solid foods may be frozen in the baking container. If you don�t want to leave your casserole dish in the freezer, line it with foil. Bake, cool, freeze, lift out the foil package, bag it and return to freezer.
Freezing Meats - The meat you thaw can only be as good as the meat you freeze. �Drugstore� wrap in meal-size packages. Flat cuts or patties should be wrapped individually or in layers separated by a double thickness of freezer wrap. Make sure store wrappings are moisture and vapor proof. If not, re-wrap meats with one of the wraps recommended under �Packaging:�
Freezing Baked GoodsWrap baked breads in recommended material. Thaw in wrapping. Unbaked yeast breads can be frozen after the first rising. Punch down, wrap and freeze. Bake cookies as usual. Cool and freeze on trays, then pack in recommended freezer bags or cartons Unbaked cookies may be dropped, molded or rolled and frozen on cookie traysstore in bag or carton; bake without thawing. Refrigerator-type cookies can be wrapped and frozen in roll form. Thaw only enough to slice when ready to bake. Fruit pies are best frozen unbaked. Bake withoui thawing. Bake pecan and similar pies before freezing...rich fillings do not freeze solid. Cut steam vents in top crusts when ready to bake.
